Tudor English contacts with North Americans, 1497-1603

• Main Author: Sewell, William Kenneth, 1923-
• Other Authors: Stoeckel, Althea Lucille, 1919-
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1971
• Subjects: Discoveries in geography > English; America > Discovery and exploration > English; Great Britain > History > Tudors; 1485-1603; Albion; Arctic; Cabot; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/20.500.14291/180639; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14291/180639; http://liblink.bsu.edu/catkey/421441

English exploration in North America before Jamestown has been relatively neglected, except for Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. This study is a survey of the contacts which the Tudor English, 1497-1603, made with North American natives.John Cabot and his young sons reached North America in 1497. He or one of his successors took three American aborigines to England. Henry VII showed concern for natives of North America and suggested that his explorers make rules designed to protect the aborigines. Henry VIII helped finance voyages to America and indirectly laid foundations for later English discovery and colonization, but his son, Edward VI, and his daughter Mary were little interested in furthering English activities in North America.Elizabeth the Protestant was enthusiastic about America and about Christianizing its natives. She was unlucky in backing Thomas Stuckley in the early 1560'x, but involved herself extensively in the three voyages of Martin Frobisher in the late 1570's. These voyages turned into a wild gold chase but his expeditions returned with much information, not appreciated at the time, of the Arctic regions of North America and its people. The Eskimos captured five of Frobisher's men, whom he was never able to recover. The captain seized several natives and took them to England where they aroused much curiosity. The Privy Council gave Frobisher specific instructions concerning his future contacts with the welfare of the aborigines. A minister, who accompanied Frobisher's third expedition, was to remain a year with a company of 100, serve them and convert the Eskimos. This colony did not remain, however.Sir Francis Drake made his global circumnavigation during the years Frobisher sailed with his three expeditions. The son of an Anglican rector and avid Protestant, Drake obviously had a real Christian interest in the Indians whom he encountered, especially in Nova Albion or California. He hoped to establish colonies in the Western Hemisphere which would be missions to the pagans. These colonies ...